Jeopardy!/J! In Popular Culture
Jeopardy! was briefly parodied in the 1982 movie called Airplane II: The Sequel featuring original Jeopardy! host Art Fleming suddenly moderating a match with the passengers as contestants. ADDITIONAL NOTE: The film also has an appearance of future Wheel of Fortune host and fill in Jeopardy! host/''Celebrity Jeopardy!'' contestant Pat Sajak as a local Buffalo anchorman. Shortly before the long-running current version premiered in syndication, the original version of Jeopardy! was satirized in a music video by "Weird Al" Yankovic called "I Lost on Jeopardy", which like many of Weird Al’s songs was a spoof. This one is of Greg Kihn Band's 1983 hit (Our Love's in) "Jeopardy". Greg Kihn himself appears at the end of the video. Al himself played Rock & Roll Jeopardy!, and some categories referencing him were used on the regular show. ADDITIONAL NOTE: The song also referenced another long-running game show, The Price is Right, for which the actually lyrics are: "Don't know what I was thinkin' of/I guess I just wasn't too bright. Well, I sure hope I do better/Next weekend on the Price Is Right-ight-ight." A spoof of Jeopardy! is seen in the live musical stage show Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Coming Out of Our Shells Tour where the turtles play their own version of the show and briefly mention its host Alex Trebek. A spoof of a Jeopardy! episode is seen in one episode of Beavis & Butthead. A clue is heard that says, "Doctors say that people need one of these once a year," to which Beavis responds, "What is a shower?" In 1990, Jeopardy! was featured in the long-running NBC sitcom Cheers. Mailman and frequent bar visitor Cliff Clavin (played by John Ratzenberger) was a longtime fan of Jeopardy! When he learned that the show was taping in Boston, he wasted no time in trying and making it to the show. During the show's opening, we saw a brief cameo appearance of announcer Johnny Gilbert introducing Alex. The six categories for the Jeopardy! segment consisted of Civil Servants, Stamps From Around The World, Mothers & Sons, Beer, Bar Trivia, and finally Celibacy; Woody (played by Woody Harrelson) referred to this round as "Cliff's Dream Board". The scene instantly changed from the first segment to the'' Final Jeopardy!'' segment, and this was where everything went south. The Final Jeopardy! segment was "Movies" and the clue was "Archibald Leach, Bernard Schwartz and Lucille LeSueur"; the correct response was "What are the real names of Cary Grant, Tony Curtis and Joan Crawford?", but Cliff's response was "Who are three people who have never been in my kitchen?"; Cliff, in his cocky manner, risked everything and lost, causing a lady contestant who only had $400 to win. Cliff then protested that they should've accepted his answer. In the final scenes of the episode, Alex walked into the bar he actually stopped by to get a drink and Cliff was there he was completely embarrassed by his appearance & performance on the show at the time; Alex then walked up to Cliff and consoled him about his end-of-the-show troubles and even thought of leaving the show and moving to Tibet, but Cliff seeing that he worships the show didn't want Alex to go away, and so he successfully convinces Alex to stay seeing that he makes the show an American institution. When Alex did agree, Cliff's obsession disappeared and he went out to share the news that he saved Jeopardy!; after that, Cliff's friend Norm Peterson (played by George Wendt) talks with Alex and tells him that it's admirable that he would come all the way over to the bar just to try to make Cliff feel better; Alex then reveals that he didn't know Cliff was at the bar, and that running into him had only been a coincidence, and so he made up the remarks about quitting as improvisation to placate Cliff because "he scares me." Norm replied, "You, too?" This very episode created "Clavin's Rule" or "pulling a Cliff Clavin"; take, for example, a contestant from the real show on a 2000 episode who did that on a "Daily Double". John Ratzenberger would later become a celebrity contestant on Celebrity Jeopardy! On a 1988 episode of Mama's Family called "Mama on Jeopardy!", Thelma Harper's (played by Vicki Lawrence, who hosted Win, Lose or Draw for NBC at the time) friend Lola (played by Beverly Archer) tried out for Jeopardy! as a way of meeting host Alex Trebek, but after missing a few questions both on Shakespeare, Thelma was the one who made it to the show. When she got there, Thelma did terrible, for she was in the negative zone up until Double Jeopardy! where she got two right the first she stumbled into the correct response, and the second was about The Three Stooges causing her to get out of the hole with +$100 and allowing her to play Final Jeopardy! in which the category as luck would have it was "Shakespeare". The final clue, however, had nothing to do with any of Shakespeare's plays; it was "the name of William Shakespeare's only son". Thelma, naturally, did not get the clue right; her response was "What is Bubba?" which cost her all but one dollar. The lady player on her left, however, who also responded incorrectly, did. The champion at the time who also responded incorrectly, from not wagering a lot of his winnings, remained champion. The correct response, incidentally, was "What is Hamnet?" Thelma thought she was going home with Lee Press-On Nails, but actually, as announced by Johnny Gilbert, she won a trip for four to Hawaii, which pleased Mama, who announced she's taking her worthless family with her. This was sort of a lead-in to a two-parter which followed. ADDITIONAL NOTE: Vicki Lawrence (as well as her character Mama) would later appear as celebrity contestants on Celebrity Jeopardy! Jeopardy! was briefly mentioned on an episode of Perfect Strangers where Balki & Larry competed on a game show called Risk It All which used set parts from a real game show called Fun House, produced by the same company as Perfect Strangers. It was made when Balki was upset about not playing the stunts since cousin Larry only wanted to answer the questions. Bob Goen portrayed the host in that episode. In the 1991 episode of Tiny Toon Adventures called K-ACME TV. It paid homage to Jeopardy! with the spoof Gyp-Parody!. The show was hosted by Buster, and three of the contestants were Elmyra, Byron, and Calamity. Gameplay was the same as the show it's spoofing. Gyp-Parody.png Gyp_Parody_Close-Up.png Buster_Bunny_Gyp-Parody_Host.png Animaniacs also paid homage to Jeopardy! as well three times. In the "Pinky & the Brain" segment "Win Big" from September 14, 1993, the spoof Gyp-Parody! was seen where The Brain in his big human suit wants to win $99,000 so that he can finish his device to take over the world, but he ultimately loses when he doesn't know what classic TV character was known for saying "Bang! Zoom! Right in the Kisser! (as of which his friend Pinky does know) which is "What is Ralph Kramden?" Gyp-Parody_Animaniacs_1.png Gyp_Parody_Animaniacs_2.png Gyp-Parody_Animaniacs_3.png Gyp-Parody_Animaniacs_4.png Gyp-Parody_Animaniacs_5.png In the segment "King Yakko" from September 24, 1993, Gyp-Parody! was once again briefly spoofed where he plays the game show. Gyparody_Animaniacs_King_Wakko.png In the segment "Wakko's America" from October 12, 1993, Miss Flamiel (voiced by Tress MacNeille) hosts a game of Jeopardy! in her classroom with the three Warner siblings as contestants and to her tune of "Turkeys in the Straw". Animaniacs_J!_Wakko's_America_1.png Animaniacs_J!_Wakko's_America_2.png On The Nanny, nanny Fran Fine (played by Fran Drescher) appeared as a contestant who like Mama Harper was in a negative situation up until Double Jeopardy! where she got the last two right both of which were about food; her second correct response was on a "Daily Double" clue which she rang in on; normally on the real show, contestants who found a Daily Double don't need to ring in since they're the only ones to answer causing her to get out of the hole with +$100 and allowing her to play Final Jeopardy!. On the real show, the player with the most money going into Final Jeopardy! had his/her response checked last, but in this episode, it was Fran's response that was checked last as a matter of surprise; prior to her response being shown, Fran went into a long lecture until Alex yelled out her name one of the very rare times Alex loses his cool as a matter of moving along causing her to announce her response the same time it was revealed. Fran's question was correct, risked it all and won the game with just $200. This was one of the few shows using this plot in which the protagonist comes out victorious. ADDITIONAL NOTE: Charles Shaughnessy who played Maxwell on the show and Michael McKean who guest starred in that episode would later become celebrity contestants. A 1992 episode of The Golden Girls titled "Questions and Answers", Dorothy (played by the late Beatrice Bea Arthur) is all excited when she learns that Jeopardy! is having tryouts in Miami as this leads her to begin cramming for the audition test and later proves to be an annoyance to everyone at the audition. In addition, one night while studying, Dorothy dreams that she's a contestant on the show where Alex Trebek moderates a game pitting her against Charlie Dietz (from Empty Nest, played by David Leisure) and four-time champion Rose Nylund...and losing. Also appearing in her dream is the creator/producer of the show Merv Griffin. ADDITIONAL NOTE: David Leisure went on to host the unsold game show pilot called Hype later on. A 1995 episode of Blossom titled "Who's Not on First", Blossom's brother Joey fantasizes that he is a contestant on Jeopardy! pitted against Blossom and Albert Einstein. In a 1995 episode of Beverly Hills 90210, appropriately titled "Double Jeopardy", Brandon, Clare and Andrea vie for a spot on College Jeopardy for which only one of them can win. Jeopardy! was briefly mentioned on a 1996 episode of the sitcom Cybill called "Pal Zoey", where Cybill Sheridan's cousin Lyle Clocum (played by Jeff Foxworthy) dreams of becoming a contestant on The Price is Right. ADDITIONAL NOTE: In addition, comedian Jeff Foxworthy would later become the host of Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?, The American Bible Challenge and The American Baking Competition. Also, he would later appear as a guest "shark" on the hit ABC reality series Shark Tank in 2011. The 1998 pilot episode of the short-lived revival of Fantasy Island features a spoof of Jeopardy! where a young lawyer named Jane (played by Marley Shelton) who wants to "know everything" so that she can outsmart her sister Regina (played by Lisa Robin Kelly) at Jeopardy!. The two sisters wind up on the Sushi Bar-era set of Jeopardy! hosted by Mr. Roarke (played by Malcolm McDowell) rather than Alex Trebek. Oddly enough, Mr. Roarke's assistant named Ariel (played by Machen Amick) becomes the "lovely assistant" in the spoof. ADDITIONAL NOTE: The actual show itself never used a female assistant. On a 1998 episode of Baywatch titled "Swept Away", Alexis "Alex" Ryker (played by Mitzi Kapture) wants to be a contestant on Jeopardy! as she makes it on the show. Later, she has to rescue host Alex Trebek as she later knows that she will never get the chance to compete on the show according to its rule where the contestant is not allowed to know anyone from the Jeopardy! staff. However, Trebek feels sorry for her so instead he gives her a lifetime supply of Jeopardy! products. In 2007, the opening credits to an unaired pilot of the short-lived sitcom CavemenCavemen T.V. Series: Unaired Pilotbased on a series of formerly popular GEICO commercials. Sees a Caveman along with his two female opponents competing on an episode of Jeopardy! although the picture looks like it was in photoshop. Cavemen Jeopardy! 2.png Cavemen Jeopardy!.png ADDITIONAL NOTE: The series itself ran on ABC from October 2 until November 13, 2007. The initial limited screening of the pilot was met with a less-than-favorable reception. The pilot was accused of being racist because of some critics though the cavemen were being used as a metaphor for black people and other minorities. The series subsequently underwent through a major creative "retooling" which including changing the show's venue from Atlanta, Georgia to San Diego, California. The pilot episode still remains to be unaired on ABC to this day. A year later, the pilot did air in Australia by the Seven Network on September 10, 2008. Ellen DeGeneres plays an energy-themed episode of Jeopardy! in EPCOT's Ellen's Energy Adventure attraction. In the attraction, Ellen plays the game as a dream she has while sleeping on the couch, playing against a rival of hers from college, Judy Peterson (played by Jamie Lee Curtis). After failing to give a correct response on her first clue, Bill Nye (one of her neighbors here) helps her by showing her various energy sources during the commercial break. Afterwards, she powers through all the clues in both Jeopardy! and Double Jeopardy! rounds. The Final Jeopardy! clue in the category "The Future of Energy" is "It is the one source of power that will never run out." Ellen and Bill have never played the game for real, though, not even with the same categories, but Bill did give clues for the show once and Ellen was given a mention in the category "Celebrity Marriages". Jeopardy! was spoofed on Sesame Street in its 37th season. Alex Trebek made a special guest appearance, and Telly was a contestant. Besides a different title "Special of the Day", the rules of the game are the same as the show it's spoofing.Jeopardy! on Sesame Street Unfortunately, on the real show, the Muppets so far haven't become contestants. Jeopardy! was parodied several times on Saturday Night Live (or SNL for short). The first spoof was entitled Jeopardy! 1999, which parodied the Art Fleming version while another in 1993 was seen as a Sprockets skit entitled saD tsI !ydrapoeJ (Das Ist Jeopardy!) hosted by Dieter (played by Mike Myers). Then in 1995, another spoof entitled Gapardy featured The Gap girls as contestants and was hosted by Debbie Luciano (played by Courteney Cox of Friends fame). The most well-known spoof on Saturday Night Live was Celebrity Jeopardy!, which parodied the special event under the same name where celebrities compete for charity and the game's difficulty is significantly reduced. Fourteen sketches aired from 1996 to 2009. In all fourteen sketches Will Ferrell played Alex Trebek, and there were recurring antagonists as one of the guests; in the first three, Norm MacDonald played Burt Reynolds, and in the remaining sketches, Darrell Hammond played Sean Connery after MacDonald left the show. MacDonald did make two return guest appearances as Reynolds. In 2014, a sketch entitled Black Jeopardy! featured mostly two black people and one white person as contestants as well as a black version of Alex Trebek named "Alex Treblack" hosting (played by Kenan Thompson of All That and Kenan and Kel fame). All fourteen Celebrity Jeopardy! sketches took place on a reproduction of the sushi bar set, even though real Jeopardy! was using the metallic set at the time of the last two sketches in 2005 and 2009; however, the Black! Jeopardy sketch took place on a reproduction of the current set. In the 40th Anniversary of Saturday Night Live from 2015 was Celebrity Jeopardy!, ''it was hilarious and funny, Darrell Hammond played Sean Connery, Justin Bieber played Kate McKinnon, Alec Baldwin played Tony Bennett, Norm MacDonald played Burt Reynolds, and more. ''Jeopardy! was also spoofed on Mad TV. The first sketch, entitled "Schizophrenic Jeopardy", featured three schizophrenic contestants. Another skit aired in 1998, which combines Jeopardy! with Earvin Magic Johnson's short-lived late night talk show The Magic Hour; this skit was called "The Magic Johnson Jeoparty Hour". In this skit, Aries Spears played Earvin Magic Johnson, where he is having trouble reading the clues to the contestants, and the show was cut after "You're Cancelled" appeared on the television monitors. The third sketch, aired in 2004, was based on Ken Jennings and his memorable winning streak. Ike Barinholtz played Alex Trebek, who rigged the game in favor of two contestants to beat Jennings. The first two sketches were on reproductions of the 1991-1996 grid set, even though the sushi bar set was used on real Jeopardy! at the time the second skit aired. However, the third skit took place on a reproduction of the 2002-2009 set. Jeopardy! is spoofed as Celebrity Jeopardy! on The Chimp Channel featuring Prince, Roberto Benigni and TCC Hunk Brock Hammond as contestants. Jeopardy! is spoofed as an improv game on Drew Carey's Improv-A-Ganza called "Question This!" A Jeopardy!-like show called Super Stumpers appeared in a 1993 episode of the classic Nicktoons series Rugrats called "Game Show Didi". In the episode, Didi crams day-and-night for her upcoming appearance on the show as she is desperate to win; however, the Pickles men mainly Stu and Lou just want the prize instead. Tommy is curious as to why his mom is acting so out of character. As it turns out, Didi is out to find her "place in the sun". The episode ends with Didi winning the game with a new record of over $1,000,000 in cash due to Tommy stomping the control machine which caused an error of the machine to happen. ADDITIOAL NOTES: The host for the show is Alan Quebec which in turn is a parody of Alex Trebek which in turn provides the voice of said chatacter. Didi's opponent named Edmund is voiced by the late Charles Nelson Reilly of Match Game fame. Jeopardy! is spoofed in a 1997 Christmas-themed episode of The Simpsons called "Miracle on Evergreen Terrace", where Marge decides that the only alternative is to try and win money by becoming a contestant on Jeopardy!; however, she performs poorly on the show and ends up with -$5,200. After the show, Trebek and two men approach the Simpsons family demanding that they pay the $5,200 that Marge was in the red which doesn't happen in real life and the family runs away. When they get home, they find that everyone in Springfield including Trebek has gathered on their lawn and Marge thinks they have forgive them. But while everyone forgives them, they enter the family's home and steal things from it except all the curtains and the living and dining room window sill cushion seats in order to cover the $15,000 debt. In the end, the family playfully fight over a tattered washcloth which is the only thing they have left in the house. ADDITIONAL NOTE: Pressman would later release a Simpsons themed version of their Jeopardy home game as The Simpsons Jeopardy! in 2004. Jeopardy! has been spoofed on the FOX animated series Family Guy five times. In "Brian: Portrait of a Dog" from 1999, Peter Griffin becomes a contestant on the show as he buzzed in with the answer of "What is Diarrhea?" In another episode called "If I'm Dyin', I'm Lyin'" from 2000, when Peter and Chris pass a collection of television monitors, they see one of them play Jeopardy! on ABC obviously a semi-reference to the short-lived 1990 spin-off Super Jeopardy!. Another episode, "I Take Thee Quagmire" from 2006, Mayor Adam West is in Final Jeopardy and his response to the answer "The first spacecraft to land on the surface of Mars" was Kebert Xela (Alex Trebek backwards), making Alex disappear. Adam states that saying his name backwards sends him to the fifth dimension. This same answer actually happened in a real episode in 2007 where a contestant named Jared put the same answer, "Kebert Xela". As a result, he loses everything and ends up with nothing. In "Livin' on a Prayer" from 2012 (not to be confused with the hit Jon Bon Jovi song from 1986 of the same name), a cutaway gag shows Peter getting the answer wrong on Jeopardy! and starts cursing in the process. In "Turban Cowboy" from 2013, Peter and the guys at the Drunken Clam watch a special edition of Jeopardy! called The Best of Contestant Banter. ADDITIONAL NOTE: In the episode "If I'm Dyin', I'm Lyin'", they also spoofed the Bergeron era of Hollywood Squares, where it features a character named Jeremy the Terminally-ill boy. In the 2006 episode "I Take Thee Quagmire", it's sister show Wheel of Fortune was also referenced. A Robot Chicken episode from 2006 called "Cracked China" has briefly mention the show in one of their skits called "Golden Girls in the City" which was a mixed spoof of both The Golden Girls and Sex and the City respectively where Dorothy prefers "a quiet night at home watching Jeopardy!... with her hand on the buzzer". Dorothy_watching_Jeopardy!.png ADDITIONAL NOTE: Dorothy Zbornak is voiced by Susan Silo. An October 17, 2010 edition of the comic strip Pearls Before Swine[http://www.gocomics.com/pearlsbeforeswine/2010/10/17 Larry the Croc on Celebrity Jeopardy!]Larry the Croc competes on a celebrity episode. Larry is seen acting like a drunk at times, but he ends up outperforming his opponents by the end of "Double Jeopardy!". On a "Final Jeopardy!" answer defining zebra an animal that functions as a main character in the strip itself, Larry responds correctly, but his "Croc-ese" misspelling of "zebra" as "zeebra" is ruled incorrectly by the judges. And that, accompanied by his wagering his entire score, leads him to los all his money. At the end, he objects, abusing Trebek. Jeopardy! is also spoofed in a May 13, 2011 episode of the popular online YouTube series The Annoying Orange where the title of the show is "Fruit for All!" and is hosted by "Apple Trebek", a parody of Alex Trebek. Orange wins the game despite going away empty-handed. Jeopardy! was also briefly spoofed in the October 31, 2015 episode of JonTron as he reviews the terrible animated movie from 2000 called Titanic: The Legend Goes On, He goes on the show and says that "I'll Take Broken English for $800". Jeopardy! is played in the 1992 movie White Men Can't Jump where Gloria Clemente (played by Rosie Perez) went on the show and won $14,100. Host Alex Trebek makes a cameo appearance in the scene. Gloria_Clement_on_Jeopardy!.png Gloria_Clemente_on_Jeopardy!_2.png Gloria_Clemente_on_Jeopardy!_3.png Gloria_Clemnte_on_Jeopardy!_4.png In 2000, Jeopardy! made a brief cameo appearance in the opening credits of the movie version of Charlie's Angels (based on the formerly popular and original 1976-81 crime-drama TV show of the same name) where one of the angels named Natalie Cook (played by Cameron Diaz) became an undefeated five-day champion with an amazing total of $118,599 as host Alex Trebek shake Natalie's hand in victory. Natalie_Cook_on_Jeopardy!.png Natalie_Cook_A_Jeopardy!_Champion.png Alex Shake Natalie's Hand.png ADDITIONAL NOTE: Diaz herself would later appear on Celebrity Jeopardy! A brief scene from Scary Movie 3 in 2003 where the categories and some of the dollar amounts from Jeopardy! start to show up on screens inside the lighthouse. Scary_Movie_3_Jeopardy!_Scene.png In 2005, a knock off movie of the show was called Jepardee! featuring Chris Spencer as Alex Getback, Rodney Perry as Tyrone Watkins, Niecy Nash as Kelsha Jenkins and Gary Anthony Williams as Dr. John Butler as three contestant go head-to-head guessing favorite questions about celebrities, hot sauce and household appliances. ADDITIONAL NOTE: According to its poster, the tagline for this movie says "Uhhh, Now what the question is?" In 2011, after their parody of Hollywood Squares Hustler made another porn parody game show movie called This Ain't Jeopardy! XXX This is a Parody. In the film there was a semi-reference clue that read "This long handled gardening tool also means Immoral Pleasure Seeker" in which Pimp Steve answered, "What is a Hoe?". This is a parody from the actual clue from the show itself that read "This term for a long-handled gardening tool can also mean an Immoral pleasure seeker" in which former Jeopardy! champ Ken Jennings also responded, "What's a hoe?" For both terms respectively the correct response actually is "What is a rake?" You can read about the film in the links page. In the 2012 box office movie flop The Three Stooges (based on the formerly popular 1922-70 comedy show of the same name), the "Think" music plays as Moe, Larry, & Curly are thinking of a way to raise money. The music ends abruptly when Curly waddles on the sidewalk. A 2013 episode of the short-lived talk show revival of The Queen Latifah Show did a spoof of Jeopardy! called Rap Jeopardy! where Queen Latifah challenges Will Smith in the episode, hosted by Alex Trebek. In addition, this is the only spoof of Jeopardy! where it oddly features two contestant podiums instead of three. References Category:Jeopardy! Category:In Popular Culture